Re: It's Raining Drummers for !!!, Juan Maclean

this reminds me of an amazing comic book artist named Seth Fisher that died a few years ago...he was drunk and fell off of the roof of a 7-story tall club in Osaka. It was so sad meeting his family at Comic-Con that year

Re: It's Raining Drummers for !!!, Juan Maclean

November 9, 2009
Drummer Dies After Fall in Elevator Shaft
By COLIN MOYNIHAN

Gerhardt Fuchs grew up playing the drums in Georgia and went on to perform with bands that toured across the country, but it was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that he forged his reputation as a dynamic, driving drummer widely esteemed by his peers.

And it was in that same neighborhood, in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge, that Mr. Fuchs, known as Jerry, fell to his death on Sunday morning in the elevator shaft of an industrial building on Berry Street.

“His passing puts an enormous hold on the Brooklyn music scene,” said Jon Fine, a friend of Mr. Fuchs’s and a columnist for Business Week. “The world of independent music has sustained a really significant loss.”

At about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, Mr. Fuchs, 34, who had attended a benefit party on the building’s seventh floor, was stuck on a freight elevator between the fourth and fifth floors, friends and the police said. He had been trying to jump out of the stalled car when his jacket got caught on something, causing him to fall to the bottom of the shaft. Another man, who was not identified by the police, was riding with Mr. Fuchs in the elevator but safely jumped to a fourth floor hallway.

Alex Frankel, Mr. Fuchs’s roommate in Bushwick, who sings with the band Holy Ghost!, said he arrived at the party just before 1 a.m. and heard that somebody had fallen. He peered into the shaft and saw a figure lying face down.

“We flipped him over and it was Jerry,” Mr. Frankel said. “When we found him he was not able to talk.”

Mr. Fuchs was pronounced dead at Bellevue Medical Center.

There is no suspected criminality, the police said. The medical examiner and the Buildings Department are investigating.

Mr. Fuchs grew up in Marietta, Ga., and attended the University of Georgia, in Athens. He moved to New York in 1995 to join Mr. Fine’s band, Vineland. Eventually he played hundreds of shows with other bands, including the Juan MacLean, Turing Machine, Holy Ghost! and Maserati.

Mr. Fuchs was known for his adaptability: His signature style could carry a band and inspire imitation.